Comments on: 30 Days of Repulsiveness

By: cannibal vegetarian

cannibal vegetarian — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:47:11 +0000

Is there a term for people who become vegetarians to match the eating habits of their significant
others and then eat meat again after the break up?

By: bob

bob — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 15:57:40 +0000

Thanks for this, Ryan. I agree with you that it is a bothersome trend — indeed, this is the kind of thing that is promoted when we have movement leaders like Singer saying that one need not be so strict about one’s veganism. This is a conflicting message if there ever was one.

As for Francione, I’m not convinced that he’s attacking people: he’s stating another side of the argument. What scares me is that people see dissenting with the main mindset of the major orgs as “attack.” It isn’t attack. It is dissent, and it is vital if we’re ever going to invigorate this movement.

By: dale ball

dale ball — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 14:37:14 +0000

OK ! Just checked out the whole “30 Days of Pork ” thing. Thanks for providing 30 reasons to stay vegan, Ryan ! Not only is it repulsive, but it is a sad commentary on the greedy, disconnected mindset that drives many people’s food choices. Ms. Kelso goes from a yoga class to a cafe to dine on a slaughtered animal that lead a horrific, confined, abrreviated life…and then gushes about how it’s flesh tasted. Way to live a mindful life, Kelso.

By: dale ball

dale ball — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 14:20:17 +0000

Thanks, Ryan, for posting great stuff ! I havent read the 30 Days of Pork essay yet, ( I will tho ! ) but I have read Omnivore’s Dilemma, and we are featuring it as our first Vegan Book Club selection in our new Blue Ridge Vegan Society. Why ? Because I think it provides great timely information in an entertaining format. Pollan is a wonderful writer and advances the vegan ethic without really even trying. It WAS very frustrating to see perfect opportunites for him to admit that a vegan outlook would be the answer, and I kept waiting, hoping he’d segue into that, but he never did. His own personal pleasures are too important to him. I did not come away from reading his book thinking that I should give up being a slack vegetarian ( occaisionally eating “happy” chickens, some dairy and “free range” eggs )…what I got out of it was, ” I really need to go vegan and be done with the massive industrial complex that is animal agriculture…AND help spread the word on how damaging it is to the animals ( duh, but Pollan pretty much ignores that ), the environment and human health. ” So our little Vegan Society was born just a few months ago…we are still working on the website, still forming ideas on how to run the group. Anyone interested can contact me or check out the website. And we’ll be discussing Pollan’s book ( and related subjects) April 1st.

By: Pam

Pam — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 23:06:02 +0000

If you just read the book The China Study by Campbell, you can get to the scientific reason for Veganism. I don’t like the mistreating of animals, and I wear leather shoes, so that makes me a hypocrite. Okay. The Author was raised on a dairy farm and for many years ate the typical Western diet. He became a scientist and was funded to research cancer. His findings will blow you away! It is the reason I became Vegan 5 weeks ago and brought my two teens and husband right along with me and they haven’t even read the book yet. We all feel ssssooooo much better. I gave away 3 copies to family and one of them is giving Vegan a try for 4 weeks, the others haven’t read the book yet…

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 21:22:34 +0000

Fair enough. I have been concerned by the tone I have seen on some blogs (e.g. http://garyfrancione.blogspot.com/index.html) that seem more interested in attacking people who voice slightly different points of view than in advancing veganism.

By: girl least likely to

girl least likely to — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 01:10:37 +0000

ugh, the bolded portions of the quote actually gave me a stomach ache. i just don’t understand how someone goes vegetarian “because they love animals,” but then decides it’s MORE ethical to eat them. how does that happen? i’m really starting to hate that book, and i haven’t even read it yet.

By: ryan

ryan — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 20:48:30 +0000

Hi Jeremy –

To clarify, I’m not completely discounting animal welfare by posting an item like this. As I mentioned, the welfare-rights-abolition thing is something I’m still thinking through and I’m trying to figure out where I’m planting my feet.

Likewise, I don’t want a post like this to seem like I’m on some sort of ex-vegetarian witchhunt. People go from veg back to meat eating (and vice versa) every day. But once they publicize the fact they’re doing so and create a project documenting 30 days of eating pork, they become fair game for commentary.

I also know someone that’s going vegan based on having read Singer’s book and I agree that any step towards veganism is a good thing. But I become deeply concerned when I see articles appearing in newspapers about vegetarians “seeing the light” and thinking they can go back to eating meat and still be on the same ethical ground as they were before. Likewise with projects whose gimmick is the converted vegetarian. I’m just noting here that it’s a bothersome trend I’m seeing here.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 20:35:23 +0000

I think you are mistaken to make a judgment about a strategy for animal welfare on this kind of anecdotal evidence. My wife gave up eating meat after hearing Peter Singer speak. Why isn’t this anecdote as compelling as yours? We should continue to urge people to reduce and eliminate animal consumption and count every step in that direction as a victory. A movement based on reading out heretics is doomed to irrelevance, and irrelevance will not save any animals.